All About People: Truck Driver Eric's Journey Across America

Eric has spent most of his life on the road as a truck driver. He says Tessenderlo Kerley has made his journey as pleasant and productive as possible.

“It was Tessenderlo Kerley that provided the resources that I needed to complete the job and do it safely,” said Eric, a long-haul truck driver based out of Tessenderlo Kerley’s Jupiter plant in Ponca City.

Eric supplies Tessenderlo Kerley’s customers with crucial crop production products from NovaSource®. He’s on his own a lot during his travels across the country, but has never felt alone, thanks to his team at Ponca City, and his manager at the corporate office in Phoenix who provide him with the latest knowledge, training and equipment to facilitate his product deliveries.

“It’s the people that make Tessenderlo Kerley,” Eric said. “It’s not just one person or five people. We all work together, and that’s what I like about it, is the communication. It’s the process that goes into it, before, during and after.”

The truck driver role can be demanding, but Eric said Tessenderlo Kerley understands that family comes first, and it recognizes the importance of a work-life balance.

“If you need personal time for family events, surgeries or anything like that, it’s not a problem,” he said. “They’ve always been able to adjust.”

Eric treats his customers as if they were part of his family. His wife’s blue ribbon banana nut bread helps him do that.

“I’ll take a couple loaves with me. I’ll put one in the freezer in the truck, one in the fridge, and I’ll hand deliver it when I’m done loading,” Eric said. “I provide a good service for the company, and I go a little extra, just from a human relations standpoint like my dad always taught me. It just builds relationships.”

Eric says meeting and building trust with new and existing customers is his favorite part of the job – and that’s something that never gets old.

“I’ve always had an interest in meeting people,” he said. “I like having friends on the east coast, I like having friends up north, and I like having friends down south. If you greet them with a smile and are very informative and confident in what you do, you’ve got friends for life.”